A fine intact Kashan black and white ewer, Persia, early 13th century

the frit body of baluster form with narrow splayed foot, sloping shoulder and straight cylindrical neck with attached strap handle, decorated with black under a transparent glaze with major and minor geometric and foliate scroll bands

This is a vivid example of early underglaze painting at Kashan prior to the Mongol invasions.  The fusion of formal arabesques with more dynamic organic forms creates a lively design enhanced by the fluidity of the brushwork. The water-weed design first appears in Persian underglaze-painted wares in the early thirteenth century.  These wares, decorated using a brush, superseded the earlier and more-labour intensive slip-carved "Silhouette wares". These wares were produced for export as well as for the domestic market and were closely imitated at the Raqqa potteries of northern Syria.  For a discussion of the impact of Persian underglaze-painted designs on Raqqa and Fustat in the first half of the thirteenth century, see Philon, H., "Stems, Leaves and Water-Weeds: Underglaze-painted pottery in Syria and Egypt", J Raby (ed.)., The Art of Syria and the Jazira, 1100-1250, Oxford, 1985.